Like many, I am guilty of getting sucked into the vortex of TikTok reels, but my experience (mainly dogs and Scotland) is unique to me, the algorithm having noticed my previous penchant for lingering on puppies or kilted men by lochs. Cal Newport is fascinated by this uniqueness despite previously—and publicly—rejecting social media. In this piece, Newport explores the appeal of this form of content, talking to different users and commentating on his own first experience of TikTok (dancing baseball players and rotating snow brooms).
The velocity of the clips and the rawness of their emotion is breathtaking. I immediately feel old, like a grandparent encountering a smartphone for the first time. What I notice most, though, is TikTok’s lack of obvious purpose. In a 2013 blog post called “Why I’m (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook,” I described a common argument in favor of legacy social media: that it “makes it possible to maintain lightweight, high-frequency contact with a large number of people.” This is clearly not the function of TikTok, which does not revolve around following friends or posting updates about one’s life. When I first signed up, the app didn’t even require me to pick a username; it asked only for my phone number and birthday. According to Pew Research, the typical TikTok user never adds information to their account’s “bio” field. They’re happy to remain anonymous consumers of content. (I’d later learn that many people share TikToks via texts or instant messages.)
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